8/9/2019 Rapes of Bosniak Women & Girls in the Srebrenica Genocide

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rapes-of-bosniak-women-girls-in-the-srebrenica-genocide 1/4

RAPED WOMEN WERE ALSO VICTIMS OFSREBRENICA GENOCIDE

[W]e saw two Serb soldiers, one of them was standing guard and the other one waslying on the girl, with his pants off. And we saw a girl lying on the ground, on somekind of mattress. There was blood on the mattress, even she was covered with blood. She had bruises on her legs. There was even blood coming down her legs.She was in total shock. She went totally crazy. [See: Prosecutor vs. KrsticJudgement]

Genocide is a crime so enormous and so heartrending that itseems to defy understanding. It is also the most serious of international crimes and the most difficult to prove. SerbGeneral Radislav Krstic was found guilty of Srebrenica Genocide

and sentenced to 46 years imprisonment by the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). On appeal,Krstic's sentence was cut by 11 years as the court redefined hisinvolvement.

 As a result, The Court confirmed, for the second time, that the1995 massacre of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) in Srebrenica wasindeed an act of Genocide.

In a landmark ruling, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia widened the

definition of genocide when it found Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic guilty of “aiding and

abetting genocide” for his role in the systematic murders of Bosniak men and underage boys (children)in Srebrenica in July 1995. The Krstic ruling expanded the legal definition of genocide to cover mass

killing on the basis of gender. While the defence argued that “the VRS decision to transfer, rather than

to kill, the women and children of Srebrenica...undermines the finding of genocidal intent”, in its final judgement the Appeals Chamber found that proof of intent to commit genocide by destroying the group

 physically or biologically was met “by the disastrous consequences for the family structures on which

the Srebrenica part of the Bosnian Muslim group was based”.

Over  8,000 Bosniaks perished in the Srebrenica massacre (also see attempts to deny Srebrenica

massacre). Most of them were men and boys (children). Women were also victimized, raped, and as aresult of UN negotiations with Serbs - herded into busses and deported. Over twenty thousands Bosnian

women were raped during the war. This figure is undoubtedly an underestimate due to underreporting

(Lene Hansen, “Gender, Nation, Rape: Bosnia and the Construction of Security”).

The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) handed down a verdict in February 2001

that found three Bosnian Serb men (Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac, and Zoran Vukovic) guilty of 

rape, sexual torture and enslavement. This landmark verdict was the first time individuals wereconvicted of war crimes solely for sexual violence and the decision set a legal standard for sexual

enslavement as a crime against humanity.

Here are some excerpts from the ICTY's (International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia) 260

8/9/2019 Rapes of Bosniak Women & Girls in the Srebrenica Genocide

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rapes-of-bosniak-women-girls-in-the-srebrenica-genocide 2/4

page-rulling in the case of   Prosecutor vs. Krstic which resulted in Srebrenica genocideconviction:

43. Killings occurred.

In the late morning of 12 July 1995, a witness saw a pile of 20 to 30 bodies heaped

up behind the Transport Building in Potocari, alongside a tractor-like machine. Another testified that, at around 1200 hours on 12 July, he saw a soldierslay a child with a knife in the middle of a crowd of expellees . He also saidthat he saw Serb soldiers execute more than a hundred Bosnian Muslimmen in the area behind the Zinc Factory and then load their bodies onto a truck,although the number and methodical nature of the murders attested to by this witness stand in contrast to other evidence on the Trial Record that indicates thatthe killings in Potocari were sporadic in nature.

44. As evening fell, the terror deepened.

Screams, gunshots and other frightening noises were audible throughout the nightand no one could sleep. Soldiers were picking people out of thecrowd and takingthem away: some returned; others did not.  Witness T recounted how three

 brothers – one merely a child and the others in their teens – were takenout in the night. When the boys’ mother went looking for them, shefound them with their throats slit.

45. That night, a Dutch Bat medical orderly came across two Serb soldiers raping a young woman:

"[W]e saw two Serb soldiers, one of them was standing guard and the

other one was lying on the girl, with his pants off. And we saw a girl lyingon the ground, on some kind of mattress. There was blood on the mattress, evenshe was covered with blood. She had bruises on her legs. There was even bloodcoming down her legs. She was in total shock. She went totally crazy.”

46. Bosnian Muslim refugees nearby could see the rape, but could donothing about it becauseof Serb soldiers standing nearby. Other people heard

 women screaming, or saw women being dragged away . Several individuals were so terrified that they committed suicide by hanging themselves. Throughoutthe night and early the next morning, stories about the rapes and killingsspread through the crowd and the terror in the camp escalated.

.... ... ...

150. On 12 and 13 July 1995, upon the arrival of Serb forces in Potocari, theBosnian Muslim refugees taking shelter in and around the compound weresubjected to a terror campaign comprised of threats, insults, lootingand burning of nearby houses, beatings, rapes, and murders.

... ... ...

517. More significantly, rapes and killings were reported by credible witnesses andsome committed suicide out of terror. The entire situation in Potocari has been

8/9/2019 Rapes of Bosniak Women & Girls in the Srebrenica Genocide

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rapes-of-bosniak-women-girls-in-the-srebrenica-genocide 3/4

8/9/2019 Rapes of Bosniak Women & Girls in the Srebrenica Genocide

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rapes-of-bosniak-women-girls-in-the-srebrenica-genocide 4/4

Hague officials say that the tribunal's progress in dealing with rape has come from threefactors - the courage of the victims and witnesses who testified, the tenacity of theprosecuting lawyers, and the years of tireless lobbying by pressure groups.

The breakthrough came when prosecutors established that these rapes were entirely foreseeable. Judges agreed that the generals in charge should have reasonably predicted that,under these conditions, the sexual assaults were likely. It was concluded that any rapes thattook place in Srebrenica were therefore the fault of the commanders.

Update: Serbs Raped Bosniak Women in Potocari >> read here >>

 

Source:

http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/2006/06/women-srebrenica-massacre.html